Animal Welfare

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) will receive a grant of $320,468 from the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health to modernize its animal care facility.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a member of the Committee on Natural Resources and its Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, today urged his colleagues to pass his H.R. 7398, the Prohibit Wildlife Killing Contests Act. The measure would end the practice of rewarding hunters for killing animals on federally owned land in contests that advance no legitimate wildlife-management purposes.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a longtime member of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, today received the Humane Society of the United States "Humane Horseman of the Year" Award for his efforts to end the intentional harm to Tennessee Walking Horses, called soring, used to force horses to perform a pain-based artificially high-stepping gait known as the "Big Lick" that wins prizes at some horse shows, and for his work on improving conditions for wild horses in the Western states.

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today submitted a statement for the record during an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce legislative hearing considering his bill, H.R. 5441, the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, which he has strongly promoted since it was first introduced in 2013.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today questioned an official from the U.S. Geological Survey's Ecosystem program about a mysterious illness that has killed 85 wild horses at a Bureau of Land Management facility in Colorado in less than a week. The questions were raised at a Committee on Natural Resources hearing entitled "Preventing Pandemics through U.S. Wildlife-borne Disease Surveillance."

See his line of questioning here.

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WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) and 15 cosponsors today introduced the Prohibit Wildlife Killing Contests Act to stop the practice of rewarding hunters for killing animals on public land in contests that serve no legitimate wildlife-management purpose.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

"America's wildlife all play a special role in the natural ecosystem and killing them for what some deem ‘sport' is both cruel and unnecessary. These contests serve no legitimate wildlife-management purpose and ending them is the right thing to do."

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a member of the Natural Resources Committee and of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, today wrote to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning with his concern that federal policies for managing wild horses and burros retain outmoded and inhumane plans for mass roundups. Congressman Cohen urged officials to make use of effective fertility control vaccines and reassess the capacity of federal lands to sustain the iconic creatures.

Congressman Cohen's letter reads in part:

WASHINGTON – Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-09) and Dina Titus (NV-01) and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey today led a letter with 58 fellow Congressional colleagues to Senate and House Appropriations Committee and Interior Subcommittee leaders, requesting Interior Department appropriations language for the final Fiscal Year 2022 spending package that promotes the humane and fiscally responsible management of America's iconic wild horses and burros.